E3 thread

[SpiderMonkey]

We don't seem to have an E3 thread yet, so I'm going to fire one off ...

The COD4 gameplay demonstration looked awesome. 4 shots fired in 3 or 4 minutes, and yet it was the most interesting thing I've seen so far. The surprise in the first 30 seconds of the video is especially delightful. Small things well executed, rather than a penis comparison of who can render the best explosions. I was pleasantly surprised.

Halo 3 video looked very self-indulgent. Seemed like it would really wet your pants if you were a fan, but didn't seem to make any effort to reach out to anyone who didn't already love the series.

Killzone 2 looks really generic and awful. I don't understand why every journalist is fellating it right now. I guess it's the whole "hype = traffic to our websites = better business for us" thing or something. Grey cities, Omaha beach derived landing sequence (MoHAA did this in *2002*, guys), terrible writing (the obligatory "banter on transport into battlezone" sequence) and a montage of generic gun shooting enemy-enemy dying sequences. They hit their graphics target by putting everything in corridors or huge smoke clouds, which is way different from what the pre-render offered. Maybe I have FPS fatigue, but I struggled to see anything unique or worth getting excited about.

WiiFit looks like it will be a massive hit, I'll be interested to see just how sophisticated the balance pad really is. I'm upset there was no Pikmin on display. Mario Kart instead? Not really something I can get excited about. Metroid Prime was described as "the biggest and only FPS blockbuster this year"? Uh, no, it's really struggling to attract a buzz in the same way MP2 did, and I think Halo 3 and HL2:E2 might have a thing or two to say about being an FPS blockbuster. Looking forward to video of Mario Galaxy.

[brkl]

CoD4 is copying STALKER. Feels odd to me.

[Aussie Ben]

Current E3 highlight for me - SUPER MARIO BEE:

[miffy495]

...

Yeah.

Actually, that's pretty awesome. Do you know what kind of powers it gives him?

[Roderick]

haha, wow! Mario Bee! I missed that (I kinda jumped into the Nintendo conference halfway).

Spidermonkey, I didn't think Killzone 2 looked very impressive gameplaywise either. They did hit their polygon agenda of having it look pretty in-game, but that doesn't erect my dick [/Emilio Zerg]. Wii Fit piqued curiosity, though the conference as a whole (much like the other two) were pretty uneventful.

[elmuerte]

Current E3 highlight for me - SUPER MARIO BEE:

...

...

...

ok, that is simply stupid

[Nachimir]

The COD4 gameplay demonstration looked awesome. 4 shots fired in 3 or 4 minutes, and yet it was the most interesting thing I've seen so far. The surprise in the first 30 seconds of the video is especially delightful. Small things well executed, rather than a penis comparison of who can render the best explosions. I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm quite surprised too, but it seems possible they might be making an effort in that gameplay demo rather than the game itself. Everything else I've seen on it has been a massive explosions and bullets penis comparison.

I wonder if they'll catch any shit for (it seems) reproducing the church at Krasne?

Haze, Hellboy, meh. They both look like UT2004, with a load of extra shaders dumped on top in the former, and none in the latter.

The Mario Bee is hilarious (Though generally, I'm easily pleased), Little Big Planet is getting even slicker and I can't wait to try it, but I bet there will be some absolutely terrible UGC out of it.

[DanJW]

Where are you guys getting your footage from?

[Nachimir]

Sorry.

There is a proper e3 video site, but it only seems to have the most recent on there. gametrailers.com has them all.

[miffy495]

For me, this E3 is all about the competing Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 details. And yeah, Rock Band is currently kicking GH's ass. Full downloadable albums? "Tom Sawyer"? "Enter Sandman"? Fuck. Yes.

[Ben]

Echochrome says "Hello!"

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21583.html

[ysbreker]

Now that is cool! What platform is it for?

[elmuerte]

PSP and PS3 I think

damn, that game must have been hell to program

[miffy495]

Yeah, it'll be available as a full PSP game and a downloadable PSN game. Throw in Little Big Planet and the new price drop and I may be tempted come the holidays...

[toblix]

Holee fuckaroo.

[SpiderMonkey]

CoD4 is copying STALKER. Feels odd to me.

There was an interesting quote I read from a CoD4 interview where one of the team said that as a studio, they enjoy picking big battles with other developers, they look for places where the big guns are playing and aim to out-do them. I guess the blatant Stalker lift comes from that thinking. S'alright by me, it's better than copying some other guy's space station.

Where are you guys getting your footage from?

Gametrailers.com all the way.

[Kolzig]

Orcs & Elves coming for the DS. Hell. Yes.

If there's one game that was well made for the damn mobile phones, it's Carmack's Orcs & Elves.

[elmuerte]

"orcs & elvis" sounds like an terrible game

[DanJW]

No, it sounds amazing. Imagine elements from Army of Darkness and Robert Rankin novels.

Also, is "Orcs & Elves" intentionally reminiscent of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans?

Hail to the King, baby.

[n0wak]

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/07/capcom-zack-and.html

I've already told you more times than should really be necessary that Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure is a must-buy Wii title for fans of puzzle adventure games that really make you think. I played a couple new levels at Capcom's hotel today and it is even better.

[toblix]

Sounds awesome.

[Roderick]

Zack & Wikipedia sounds so nice. Must-have! Hopefully reports like this shut up the whiney naysayers wailing that 'it's not an adventure game'. I kinda got bit in the ass with that on AGS, so it feels good that they now get to know how wrong they were.

[vimes]

Now, this game and One Piece ultimate Adventure, make me wish I had a Wii.

[Moosferatu]

All I can say is...

Legendary:

The Box

[Thrik]

Man, there's been loads of great-looking stuff shown. From a gamer perspective this E3 hasn't been any worse than others at all.

I'm really looking forward to the following PC games:

• Crysis

• Call of Duty 4

• Kane and Lynch

• BioShock

• Brothers in Arms: Whatever

• Assassin's Creed

Not that much has been shown of Kane & Lynch, but I suspect it's going to actually turn out to be really good. It has a lot more going for it than not seeing as it's from the Mr Hitmen.

The original Brothers in Arms was good but flawed; the sequel was similarly so, unsurprising as it came out not even a year later and was more expansion pack than sequel. They've had plenty of time to sort the whole squad gameplay out, so hopefully they have.

BioShock's already been discussed to death and is either going to be very good or very disappointing. I don't think it can hit much of a middle ground.

Assassin's Creed looked quite buggy, but what's been accomplished looks fantastic and I think if they can fix up the issues it'll be bang on. At the very least it looks beautifully atmospheric.

Crysis? Crysis.

And Call of Duty 4 just looks amazing. The trailer left me completely indifferent, but that gameplay video shown was really good and hit every right note possible with me.

I was also surprised to discover that some of the above actually are PC games, previously thinking they were console exclusives. Going to be a great Q3/Q4 2007 on the PC. Especially if you factor in stuff like Team Fortress 2. :tup: